Khinjaria
Sign in to saveKhinjaria (meaning "dagger") is an extinct genus of plioplatecarpine mosasaurid from the Late Cretaceous Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco. The genus contains a single species, K. acuta, known from a partial skull and vertebra. Khinjaria was likely an apex predator in its environment, as its large body size, blade-like teeth, and unusual skull morphology would have allowed it to attack large prey animals.
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, Khinjaria is referenced by 68 other articles, and connects out to Plioplatecarpinae, Mosasauridae and Reptilia.
It sits within the topics Cretaceous Morocco, Fossil taxa described in 2024 and Maastrichtian genus extinctions.
Its subject is documented across 7 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- marine reptile
- Length
- 8
Show 4 more facts
- time period
- Maastrichtian
- location of discovery
- Ouled Abdoun Basin
- taxon name
- Khinjaria
- taxon rank
- genus
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
4 sectionsContents
- Discovery and naming
- Description
- Classification
- References
Khinjaria (meaning "dagger") is an extinct genus of plioplatecarpine mosasaurid from the Late Cretaceous Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco. The genus contains a single species, K. acuta, known from a partial skull and vertebra. Khinjaria was likely an apex predator in its environment, as its large body size, blade-like teeth, and unusual skull morphology would have allowed it to attack large prey animals.
== Discovery and naming == The Khinjaria holotype specimen, MHNM.KHG.521, was discovered in sediments of the Oulad Abdoun Basin (Lower Couche III, Sidi Chennane locality) in Khouribga Province, Morocco. The specimen consists of a partial skull (with a partial premaxilla, both maxillae, the prefrontals, the frontal and parietal, right postorbitofrontal, partial right squamosal, and a dentary) and an associated vertebra, possibly coming from the trunk region.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Khinjaria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.